The writer showed his students and friends how to remain an artist, even when one becomes a kind of cult figure.
Search results
Longreads Best of 2016: Here Are All of Our No. 1 Story Picks from This Year
All through December, we’ll be featuring Longreads’ Best of 2016. To get you ready, here’s a list of every story that was chosen as No. 1 in our weekly Top 5 email.
A Sociology of the Smartphone
Smartphones have altered the texture of everyday life, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals, and transforming others beyond recognition.
Jenny Diski: 1947-2016
Jenny Diski died this morning at the age of 68. Here are nine stories celebrating Diski and her work.
Modern Grief: Digital Ephemera and Coping with Loss
At The Walrus, Nancy Westaway finds comfort in the digital footprints left behind by her husband Jonathan, who died of esophageal cancer at the age of 50.
One-Minute Readings: Ben Montgomery Remembers Journalist Michael Brick
Above is a brief tribute to journalist Michael Brick, who died in February at the age of 41. The video features Tampa Bay Times writer Ben Montgomery reading from Brick’s 2006 New York Times story, “Dusk of the Drummer” — and it’s one of many pieces featured in a new collection, Everyone Leaves Behind a Name: True Stories, […]
Michael Joyce’s Second Act
In 1996, David Foster Wallace profiled tennis player Michael Joyce in one of the most celebrated pieces of sports writing ever published. Who has he become since?
Pregnant, then Ruptured
After an emergency operation, Joanna Petrone considers the medical advances and legal protections that allow women to survive ectopic pregnancies.
Playing for Time
As his son battles terminal cancer, a father channels his grief into the creation of a video game unlike any other.
Jenny Diski: 1947-2016
Jenny Diski died this morning at the age of 68. Here are nine stories celebrating Diski and her work.

